My business associate suggested that I use outdoor advertising. We don’t have many billboards in our community, so why should I consider outdoor advertising?
When people think of outdoor advertising, they usually think of the colorful billboards along our streets and highways. Included in the outdoor classification, however, are benches, posters, signs, and transit advertising (the advertising on buses, subways, taxicabs, and trains). They all share similar advertising rules and methods. Outdoor advertising reaches its audience as an element of the environment. Unlike newspaper, radio, or TV, it doesn’t need to be invited into the home, and it doesn’t provide entertainment to sustain its audience. Here are some reasons why businesses use outdoor advertising:
- Since it is in the public domain, outdoor advertising assuredly reaches its audience. People can’t switch it off or throw it out. People are exposed to it whether they like it or not. In this sense, outdoor advertising truly has a captured audience.
- Its messages work on the advertising principle of frequency. Since most messages stay in the same place for a period of a month or more, people who drive by or walk past see the same message a number of times.
- Particular locations can be acquired for certain purposes. A billboard located a block in front of your business can direct people to your showroom, or you can reach rural areas efficiently by placing it billboard in each small town.
- Outdoor advertising is an excellent adjunct to other types of advertising you are doing. In fact, it is most effective when coupled with other media.
